Just wondering, how many of you professionals did not go to college?

I didn’t go to college myself. I have ~10 years of experience but it seems to become more and more of a big deal.
I feel like when I started only maybe 50% of my colleagues had a degree..

. Tactical dot is tactical

@bigus-dickus just started torturing myself (good university though). But would be interesting to see how many of the successfully employed have a degree...

@bigus-dickus the guy like walking around naked all the time. His name is bigus dickus. Is there anything else we should know ? ;)

I didn't go to college. I learn better by creating projects that are a. Right at my higher ability limit, and b. Meaningful. College is great for teaching you how to learn. If you have that skill set already, it doesn't necessarily benefit you IMO. Several of the guys on my dev team aren't college graduates either.

Tech school for electronics (BAS). Not a "real" college degree. Been doing Process Controls (~20 years) and now GUI Developer (~5 years).

For every 1 process control job there is like 20 developer jobs. Developer jobs are more rewarding to me. Process control is more about true/false coding a lot of the time.

I dropped out of college because it was expensive and bloody pointless. I got a job in the industry and kept teaching myself. If I could do it again, I've have dropped out sooner.

I'm also comparable to, or a better dev than every college grad I've worked with, save some of the absolutely amazing devs I've worked with at game studios. They were amazing devs despite college, not because of it.

I'm still in awe of some of them.

College doesn't make you a better dev; interest, natural skill, and dedication do. College is only useful for learning theory and eroding your interest.

I didn't go to college (or graduate anyways). It was a big deal to my employer at the time of hiring (but they were desperate) and they were quite condescending for a while telling me in front of clients that I needed to keep my opinions to myself since I didn't have a degree. But after some time I proved my worth and they've opened up to hiring others who haven't gone the traditional route. One thing of note though is that while they're willing to hire someone with experience and no degree, they will make significantly less money than someone with a degree and no experience in our company.

I didn't go to college either ... now have 25+ years experience ... recently had that very experience with not having a degree ... Had been on an assignment at the Dutch Tax department for over 3 years. Normally 2 years is the maximum time allowed but they where unable to find a suitable replacement. Eventually they came to me and asked if I would be interested to make the switch and become an 'internal' dev. We had some chats about how to go about it and if we would be able to find some common ground on salary etc. Everything looked rosy until they figured out my lack of a college degree... from one moment to another I was no longer qualified to fill a position I had already been doing for the last 3 years ... so silly ... and their loss

Here's one I prepared earlier

https://devrant.com/rants/2108281/...

Not a college student myself, and work in a company where having a degree is the norm.

I went to uni and have only a few years of experience. I feel the exact opposite of you, I feel inferior to people my age with a lot of experience, they get better jobs

No degree; drop out; 4 yrs programming, 1 yr pro and counting....

Didn't finish high school because it was boring, ended up going full autodidact to learn at my own pace. Whether it's faster than regular school.. not sure. But it sure as hell is more enjoyable and probably already at a professional level. Meanwhile I'm getting myself certified at LPI to have one of those fancy and completely pointless pieces of paper to impress employers with. How it's gonna turn out.. only time will tell. But I wouldn't want to have it any other way 🙂